An eight-year-old boy who was shot in the chest at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, may never walk again, a family spokesman said Thursday.
Cooper Roberts was one of dozens injured when a gunman opened fire with a rifle into the crowd from a nearby rooftop, killing seven people.
Cooper was attending the parade in suburban Chicago with his parents and twin brother Luke, family friend Anthony Loizzi said in a statement. Press conference broadcast on ABC 7 Chicago.
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“Cooper was shot in the chest and sustained significant injuries, including a severed spinal cord,” Loizzi said at the conference.
“He is currently sedated and on a ventilator, in critical but stable condition.”
Struggling to speak, Loizzi said Cooper has had “several surgeries” since the shooting. He said that on Wednesday night, doctors were finally able to perform surgery to “close up her belly.”
Loizzi told reporters that Cooper’s mother was also shot “in the leg and foot area” and that her brother Luke “sustained shrapnel injuries.”
Cooper’s mother, Keely Roberts, underwent multiple surgeries and was released from the hospital on Wednesday.
Cooper Roberts’ mother, Keely Roberts, and his twin brother Luke, pictured here, were also injured during the mass shooting.
GoFundMe
“Frankly, she probably shouldn’t have been released, but she insisted on it so she could be by her son, Cooper, who is in the city hospital with her husband,” Loizzi said.
Luke has also been released from the hospital.
a verified GoFundMe Page was established to help the Roberts family pay for their medical bills and ongoing treatment.
On the page, friends of the Roberts family write that doctors have determined the eight-year-old “will be paralyzed from the waist down.”
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As of this writing, GoFundMe has raised over $567,000 of its $750,000 goal.
On Tuesday, a 21-year-old suspected gunman was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder.
If convicted, the suspect would face a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, Illinois State Attorney Eric Reinhard said in announcing the charges at a news conference.
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